Accomplished Algerian Novelist Ahlam Mosteghanemi

Algerian writer Ahlam Mosteghanemi’s latest novel Black Suits You Well sold over 100,000 copies in the two months following its release in November 2012 and is reportedly on the long list for the 2013 Sheikh Zayed Book Award. This latest success is her fifth novel written in Arabic, the first four being Memory in the Flesh, Chaos of the Senses, Passer-by a Bed, and The Art of Forgetting: A Guide for Broken-Hearted Women. Having built the reputation of being one of the world’s best-selling Arabic-speaking woman writers, Ahlam Mosteghanemi’s novels are listed as prescribed books in the curricula of a number of high schools and universities world-wide, and her work has been translated into several languages, including French and English, as well as being printed in Braille for blind readers.

In addition to her novels, Ahlam Mosteghanemi has written five anthologies – In the Harbour of Days (1973), Writing in a Moment of Nudity (1976), Algeria: Women and Writings (1985), Lies of a Fish (1993), and Nessyane.com (2009). The accomplished Algerian writer has also lectured at many universities world-wide as a visiting professor, including the American University of Beirut, University of Maryland, University of Sorbonne, Montpellier University, Yale University, University of Lyon, MIT Boston and University of Michigan.

In 1998 Ahlam Mosteghanemi was awarded the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature for her first novel, Memory in the Flesh, and she has received numerous accolades and awards for her work since then, including the Algerian Medal of Honor in 2006. In the book, the author presents four decades of Algerian history, including the revolt in East Algeria in 1945, and narrated by Khaled in the form of a memoir in 1998. Born in Constantine, Algeria, Mosteghanemi is the daughter of revolutionary leader Mohammed Chérif, and her first novel is dedicated to him, as well as to her literary inspiration, French-Algerian poet and novelist Malek Haddad.